On July 16, Wharton-Smith joined with representatives from the City of Fort Myers, Cogburn Electric, AECOM, and CDM Smith for a ribbon-cutting ceremony, lunch, and a tour of the South Advanced Wastewater Treatment Facility. See more pictures.
The $46 million project included electrical upgrades of both the Central and South Facilities, screen and grit system replacement, 48- and 54-inch influent line replacement, 24-inch influent line replacement due to collapse, structural refurbishment of aeration ditches (Trane A and B), upgrades to the Operations Buildings to meet Category 5 hurricane impact specifications, and small works items that were added during the project.
In an interview, Senior Project Manager Tom Del Torto talked about the hurdles experienced on this project with two sites on opposite sides of Fort Myers being completely renovated simultaneously. At one point for a period of four months, the project team bypassed the influent at both plants at the same time. “We were committed to this and every other obstacle thrown at us, always maintaining service to the owner, and safety to our subcontractors and plant operations staff. Through hurricanes, mechanical and electrical failures outside our scope of work, and finally COVID-19, both plants remained in service,” Tom said. “The City has been an amazing client, and we have done our best to give them the best bang for the buck, showing them we are the construction group of choice.”
Wharton-Smith President and CEO Ron Davoli congratulated the project team saying, “A job like this is very complex, and it takes a lot of smart people—whether it’s the city staff, our staff, subcontractors, engineers—a lot of smart people pulled this off, a job very well done. Congratulations to all!”
After the speakers, several groups had their turn at the big scissors and a red ribbon. Sadly, Tom had ribbon-cutting issues. When asked about the incident, he said, “This whole ‘Tom doesn’t know how to cut a ribbon’ is fake news. There were two pairs of scissors and someone gave me the dull pair.” Tom will be taking the Master Class in Ribbon Cutting next month.
The next day, more than 45 team members from various trades, vendors, and the Wharton-Smith leadership team joined in an operations-focused celebration at the Central facility. The festivities included a hearty lunch from Mission BBQ, and $500 in door prizes, including screwdriver sets, channel locks, nut drivers, tape measures, tool bags, and side cutters. See album on Flickr.
Congratulations to the project team of Tom Del Torto, Mike Flaga, Greg Schneider, Steve Becker, Cassandra Hitt, Nick Avoglia, Andrea Alicea, Carlos Torres, Justin Bartos, Billy Logan, Bob Hahn, Nate Hillard, Chris Gayner, Anthony Feria-Pereira, Gilbert Orcasitas, and Tony Ferguson.